Cohort 07 | Indonesian Public Sector Leadership Initiative

Fathina Diyanissa is a government employee from Jakarta, Indonesia. She is a design graduate turned public sector hustler with three-year experience in the creative economy, currently employed in the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as the assistant to the Vice Minister. Fathina graduated with a Design major in Institut Teknologi Bandung and started her professional work as a designer for two years. Her desire to be involved in the creative sector beyond the practicing realm led her to join the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy, where she specializes in the facilitation and potential development of Intellectual Property Rights in creative industries. Upon the merging of the agency into the Ministry of Tourism of Creative Economy, Fathina joined the assisting team to the Vice Minister, closely working with and reporting to the Vice Minister on strategic programs across the ministry. This gives her a valuable chance to see the helicopter view of the governance of the creative industry, as well as how it intersects with the tourism sector. In her further career in the public sector, Fathina hopes to remain rooted in her creative background, using her opportunities and acquired experiences to advance the ecosystem of the creative industry in Indonesia, particularly in empowering local culture and communities.

Edrida Pulungan has 10 years worked in the Secretary-General House of Regional Representatives of Republic Indonesia and expert in partnership. She earned a double Bachelor’s in Economics and Education and also a double Masters in International Relations and Sociology. She currently pursues a Ph.D. in Government Science. She worked as a Parliament PR and was then promoted as a Policy Analyst in research and budget center which has opened her mind about public policy and collaborative government. During COVID-19 to recovery economy, she innovated a penta-helix model for developing creative economy under law no. 24 and proposed her innovation to the minister. She is also active in building partnerships with senators, local, central government, private sector, academician, community, and media to overcome the social and economic problem by initiating discussion Local Heroes Network which involved youth and community. Edrida was awarded as a Government Official by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform. Edrida was concern with collaborative government, partnership, capacity building, climate change, woman empowerment, peace, and a creative economy. She published books, research, and opinion about global issues. Her book was part of the collection of Global Peace library in Paris, the title” The Peace Message of The Earth” and visited UNESCO. She is a Climate Change Leader trained by Al Gore. She also the Founder of Lentera Pustaka Indonesia which promotes literacy and the Founder of Corps International Government 4.0. She was selected to be part of Global Woman Leader ASEAN by IWB Malaysia. As a future leader, she believed her contribution to the Indonesian government and the US will increase the best partnership in the future.

Mita Puspita earned a Medical Doctor’s degree from Padjadjaran University. She has seven years of experience in clinical trial vaccines. She is responsible for the bacterial vaccine clinical trial, which handling the clinical trial from the very beginning to the end. Her main responsibility is; literature searching as the background of clinical trial design, developing clinical trial protocol, clinical trial site identification, coordinating vaccine clinical trial with the trial centers, monitoring the clinical trials, reviewing the reports, and responding to the feedback from the National Regulatory Affair about a clinical trial in the licensure process. She also has experience in managing vaccine safety data and analysis. Since graduated from medical school and was then involved in dengue research in Bandung. She also had experience as a physician in very remote areas in Yahukimo District, Papua, Indonesia. After she was involved in INA-RESPOND, Indonesia Research Partnership on Infectious Disease as a Research Assistant. She now focuses on preventive medicine and public health. Her passion to support immunization programs, that can decrease the morbidity and the mortality of communicable infectious diseases in Indonesia.

Dwi Rezeki Kirana Bangun is a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Indonesia Open University. She has been working in Indonesia Tax Court for six years and has a strong understanding of taxation and management both in theory and practice. Besides that, she developed an interest in nature and the environment. She is currently participating as a Hutan Itu Indonesia (HII) volunteer, one of the leading organizations campaigning about Indonesian forests. She also participated in fundraising and collected 86 million rupiahs to adopt more than 430 trees in the Sumatra forest. Recently, HII and more than 140 collaborators declared 7 August as Forest Day in Indonesia for the first time. This action is acknowledged by the Minister of Environment and Forestry. Combining her government experience and volunteering in HII, she initiated a movement called Forest is Our Friend (FiOF). Every month, FiOF presents a talk show called ‘Forest Talk’ that invited various speakers from all over Indonesia, such as Dayak Tribe Community, musicians, filmmakers, researchers, and anyone related to the forest. Her main goal is to raise awareness for Indonesian people to know more about the importance of protecting the forest as it is the source of clean air, clean water, and home for millions of people, flora, and fauna. She encouraged people to take real action by planting trees in their homes or protecting the existing forest with tree adoption and visit national parks to support ecotourism.

Maman Saputra worked at The Center for Public Health Policy Universitas Lambung Mangkurat where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. Currently, he studied in the final semester of the Public Health Postgraduate Program at Universitas Indonesia. Last year, he researched the COVID-19 policy response in Indonesia. The research analyzed the policy response from the government included the policy content, actors, and process. He contributes to policy analysis, research design, and data collection. He also evaluates the COVID-19 quick handling guidelines from the government in another research. Maman has academic and research passion, especially on one health and health economic issues. He has focused on his passion when he worked as a research and academic assistant on Public Health Program Universitas Lambung Mangkurat. He has appropriate skills in policy analysis, data management, and journal publication. Recently, he designs a stunting prevention and control project in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, related to the previous project on stunting in South Kalimantan (one of the national priority areas of stunting) in the last three years. Maman also led a non-profit organization, Edu-Kesmas, and Lakmus-IYMDS, that campaign the public and environmental health to the society directly and virtually through social media. He has also participated in several workshops and professional organizations in terms of leadership, management, and data analysis.

For approximately more than 11 years, Veronika Oxtafia has been working in the Public Prosecutor Institution (Attorney General Office of The Republic of Indonesia). As a Public Prosecutor Officer, Veronika Oxtafia handled multiple criminal cases and there are parts of them dealing with crimes against children. Within her law enforcement duties, Veronika focuses not merely on law enforcement efforts, but on the other side, she as well as committing deterrence duties to overcome or at least decreasing the number of crimes against child/children, and as consequences, the children would still receive their physical and/or psychological protection amongst their society later on and still could get their bright future. Due to those reasons, Veronika has committed sort of cooperation with Dinas Pemberdayaan Anak dan Perempuan (Child and Woman Empowerment Service) under the Merauke District Government to makeover District of Merauke to be a region with its characteristic that welcome and care towards children through several deterrence efforts such as establishing a halfway house for street children in District of Merauke.

Zhifa Lailatunnazhifah is an International Relations graduate with a keen interest in public policy and community development. Her career began with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), where her legacy of trilateral cooperation “China-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program” remains. She acquired four years of experience directing international conferences, working closely with the Indonesian diaspora across the world, and accomplished 60% growth of FPCI chapters at local universities. She assisted a female parliamentarian at the House of Representatives. During her tenure, she was accountable to aid with Commission I counterparts and delivered support in the Privacy Data Protection Bill drafting session. She is currently managing a capacity-building project for Indonesian women entrepreneurs under Kinara Indonesia and Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Her compassion to bring impact to society has been cultivated since doing community service assignments in high school. She is currently leading Think Policy Society, a community for Indonesian young professionals with a focus to promote evidence- and empathy-based policymaking in Indonesia. Her professional journey has exposed her to the urgency of implementing a gender-transformative approach in public policy. She is now working on an interesting project, where she got to support gender justice values and meaningful and inclusive youth participation with Rutgers International. During her spare time, she likes to read about world history, social movements, and behavioral studies.

C Novika Maharani was born in Malang, Indonesia. She completed a Bachelor’s of Law in International Law at Sebelas Maret University. Passionate in the international field, she is currently working as an Analyst in the Deputy of International Economic Cooperation – Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia. Her main duties are to analyze matters related to building and maintaining economic partnerships between Indonesia and countries in the American continent countries. The analysis is not limited to trade agreement negotiation, bilateral forum meetings, and dispute settlement in World Trade Organization. Through working in her current unit and institution, she began to learn the importance of partnership as it is stated as 17th SDGs, whether it is between inter-ministries or agencies, and partner countries. Inspired by the importance of cooperation and collaboration between ministries and agencies in Indonesia, she joined a community called Abdimuda Indonesia, with other young Indonesian Civil Servants. Abdimuda Indonesia aims to promote young Indonesian public servants to have a smart mindset to contribute to their work, encourage social movements, also prepare them as the future leader of Indonesia’s government. Other than that, she is also a member of Think Policy, a think-tank for young professionals that undertakes brainstorming and research of Indonesia policy. By joining Abdimuda Indonesia and Think Policy, she contributes and encourages collaboration for young public servants and young professionals to build critical thinking patterns towards various policies and help them to reach self-development opportunities.

Ayunda is a communication professional with years of experience working for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Currently, she is focusing on the communication for development (C4D) field where she is interested in any work related to behavioral and social change. She believes that communication plays a crucial role in helping social change in the community. She is currently working for the International Labour Organization and involved in several projects related to labor issues. Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked as a Public Relations and Communications Manager at SOS Children Villages, an INGO that provides care for children who lost or at risk of losing parental care. As a communication professional, Ayunda does not dedicate herself to a particular development issue, but she is very interested in children, public health, and equality topics. Before dedicating herself to non-profit organizations, she used to work at Public relations firms where she developed her skills at developing and executing communication strategy plans for multinational and technology companies. She is now pursuing her calling as a C4D expert and wishes to explore opportunities and collaborations with more international development organizations. Ayunda holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia majoring in Communication. She later awarded by Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Communication for Development (C4D) at the University of Reading, the United Kingdom.

Tyas Pusposari is an Indonesian social researcher with a profound interest in gender justice and grassroots activism. She currently works as a Learning and Evaluation Officer at Global Fund for Women where she supports its grantmaking strategy and organizational learning through monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Previously, she worked with several Indonesian grassroots organizations, mainly leading research projects. Her research spans from conducting comprehensive studies on child trafficking in Indonesia to mapping philanthropic support toward SDGs, to analyzing the Indonesian domestic workers’ rights movement. Recently, she worked with a grassroots disability organization to establish and develop its M&E systems for a program on ending gender-based violence against women with disabilities in Yogyakarta, funded by UN Trust Fund. She completed a Master of Public Administration as a Fulbright Scholar at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey where she wrote a thesis about the Indonesian Muslim women’s rights movement. She is based in West Java.

Ria Oktorina is a passionate working mother who loves to do volunteer work. She has more than 10 years of professional experience in the field of development planning. Ria holds a Master’s degree in Urban Management and Development from IHS-Erasmus University Rotterdam and a Bachelor’s degree in Social-Economic of Agriculture from Andalas University-Indonesia. Ria works as a Government Planner at the Regional Development Planning Board of West Sumatra Province, Indonesia. She is involved in the planning process at the regional level. She also actively contributes to the evaluation of planning policy for municipalities/regencies under West Sumatra Province. She has held an initiative participatory approach program to formulate a planning document in Solok Regency as an action plan from her professional exchange program through Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) in the USA. This program gave her insight about how government build bridge for the diverse background of people in the policymaking process. Ria is also an active volunteer at the organization related to family support. She initiated the Indonesia Breastfeeding Mother Association of West Sumatra, and become the first chairperson as well as a trained breastfeeding counselor until now. She is a volunteer with Rangkul of Keluarga Kita, an organization that focuses on family support and education. She just received an award from Semua Murid Semua Guru (SMSG) Initiative as The Most Empowered Parents for Education. She is also an alumnus of the Australia Indonesia Muslim Exchange Program (AIMEP).

Eka Christiningsih Tanlain (she/her/hers) is an experienced and passionate human rights educator who likes to conduct training for state apparatus and the public with various methods and games. She also has experience in developing modules, organizing public campaigns, and developing campaign tools. She has concerns about minority groups, gender & sexuality, and psychological impact in the helping profession. But she also keeps expanding her knowledge in other human rights issues such as torture, human rights defender, human rights cities, and others. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Jember University. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s program in Social Psychology at Unika Atma Jaya with a focus on health.